In our modern day and age, we all love to connect with friends and family through various social media apps. From Facebook to Snapchat, these platforms are fun ways to capture moments and share them with the people we love most. I love to stay posted on what my far-away friends are up to. No harm, no foul.
Until it defined me.
I think I speak for many when I say that we have fallen victim to the world inside the tiny computers we carry in our pockets. The average cell phone user checks their device 85 times a day. Those 85 times are moments that we miss right before our eyes. We forget that the world is not captured in a screen; we are not outsiders looking in.
The world is all around us, and we are in it. We are breathing it in every day.
Social media should be something that we use to share our special moments in life, but we can’t forget to actually live them. Stop taking videos of your favorite band in concert, and just enjoy the music. Pay attention to the friends you are eating lunch with. Because unlike your 341 Twitter followers who only see what you want them to see, your friends see who you really are. Besides, what good is that Pinterest meal if you don’t enjoy it with your favorite people?
Your worth is not determined by the amount of likes you get on Instagram. Because there is no filter that could ever hide your intellect, your humor or your compassion. You are a living and breathing human being, you are not a face on a screen.
The charade is over. I am tired of using my social media platforms as a mask.
Sure, maybe I need to learn how to be better at responding to text messages or snapchats more quickly, but I have been busy learning other things. I am learning how to speak to someone face-to-face at the dinner table, without feeling the need to check my phone. I am learning to just say what I think, instead of tweeting what I think. I am learning to enjoy silence, to enjoy peace.
Be the person you want to be without your phone. Do what you want to do, without worrying about who will like it. Enjoy the special moments—the moments that are just for you. Take pictures with no intention of posting them in a Facebook album. The whole world doesn’t need to see them.
Enjoy life. In real life, what you see is what you get, and its beauty could never be captured in 140 characters or less.
